Perfecting Your Remote Worker Routine
June 19, 2017
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If you had told me while I was in art school that one day I’d be working as an international remote designer, I would have laughed in your face. Seriously, I spent years toiling away in school and then another few years consumed in thankless New York City gigs trying to make a living. So, a big city girl working next to the beach in Bali was never something that crossed my mind.
But low and behold, here I am writing from Hong Kong, my new home after spending a year in Indonesia (where I lived in a villa with a pool, steps from the beach… yeah, the whole nine yards). I’m not saying this to brag, but simply paint a picture of how drastically my life blew off its original course.
Photo Credit: Designlazy.com
While I’ll save the story of how all this happened for another day, I will let you know that a huge part of shaping my remote work is my routine. Without having a solid routine as a remote worker, none of this would have ever happened.
It’s easy to imagine remote workers romping around the globe, laptop under one arm, and a surfboard under the other, but this just isn’t the reality of the situation. Rather, remote workers (the successful ones, anyway), have a structure to their days and a routine in their back pocket which generally dictates work first, surfing, and beach-going second.
Each remote worker has a different routine that allows them to get projects done and bring home the bacon… here’s a little peek into my routine and what helps me be successful as a remote international designer!
The Importance of Nailing Down a Remote Routine
While I’m not a strict professional by any means, I do have to say that I’ve got this remote worker thing down pat. It took a little while to get used to working on my own, but eventually, everything fell into place.
I’d like to say that things just happened naturally, but I actually made a concerted effort to add some structure to my life. Being a remote worker is great and all, but work is still part of the equation. Rather than just brushing my jobs to the side so I could lay on the beach in Bali, I had to really buckle down and come up with a routine that I could stick to.
Having a routine as a remote worker does so much in terms of helping me accomplish tasks and hold myself accountable. But beyond that, my routine gives me confidence in the work I’m doing and in myself in general. It keeps me on track, allows for breaks, and makes sure that I can still enjoy life while earning an income from anywhere in the world.
Without a routine, my days sped by and I had little to show for them, but once I started implementing solid structures, work was getting done and I still had enough time left over to enjoy the beautiful places I was living.
Every remote worker needs a routine. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but having practices and habits that you stick to go such a long way in bringing normalcy and productivity into what can be a whirlwind of a life. Since remote work is generally pretty open-ended and independent, a routine brings more structure and schedule to days and ensures that work actually gets done, so you can get paid (booyah!).
Steps for Your Remote Work Routine
No remote workers are going to have the same exact routine, but I can guarantee that almost every step on this list is something practiced by successful remote workers around the world.
These steps can be used independently or work together in conjunction with one another… There’s no set way of creating a routine! But this is a great jumping-off point if you’re hoping to set up a remote worker routine of your own.
Setup Routines to Tackle Different Parts of Your Day
One of the ways to start developing a routine as a remote worker is to do something as simple as creating standard daily practices. These routines don’t have to be anything fancy, but instead a consistent way to tackle your day.
When you work off this same routine day in and day out, not only are you building a solid structure for yourself (and your brain), but you’re also giving yourself the time to accomplish menial tasks that would be brushed to the wayside otherwise.
Here’s what I mean…
Mornings
Photo Credit: Designlazy.com
Every morning, I wake up and have a standard routine that I follow to get the ball rolling and my day started. It looks something like this:
• Wake up at 7:30 AM
• Make my bed
• Whip up a quick but healthy breakfast
• Clean the kitchen
• Do 30 minutes of yoga
• Take a hot shower
I do all of this before I start working because it puts me in a focused mindset and allows me to feel like I’ve already accomplished something in my personal life before devoting the rest of my day to my professional life.
Work Day
Photo Credit: Designlazy.com
Creating a solid routine for the work part of your day is fundamental for success as a remote worker.
During my work time, my routine consists of:
• Create a clean space to work in, so that I can avoid visual distractions
• Have a daily check-in with co-workers
• Work on building positive habits for work tasks I do almost every day so that I can implement a focused work time for the intensive brain-draining creative problem-solving parts of my workday
• Take breaks often and always make sure I feel like my day is balanced to keep from burning out
• Plan for incremental-working so no tasks seem too daunting
• Make sure I am using the right tools to optimize as much work as possible
• Work on my accountability by sharing my work to get feedback
It also helps to have a routine in the evenings because it helps to pull you away from the computer screen and bring you back to real life. It can be ultra alluring to stay staring at your laptop if you don’t have a routine to follow at the end of the day.
Again, this doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but creating a simple routine or set of daily practices that you can implement at the end of the day will round out hard work with personal aspects of life.
Evenings
Photo Credit: Designlazy.com
